


crack my ribcage open and pull my heart right through

by subwaytonowhere



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Angst, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, gaaaAAAY, just a lil non canon, post rescue
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-26
Updated: 2018-11-26
Packaged: 2019-08-29 16:45:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,581
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16747738
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/subwaytonowhere/pseuds/subwaytonowhere
Summary: All that Archie can see is Jughead.Or, the end of 3x05 but only Jughead is there and it's super freakin gay





	crack my ribcage open and pull my heart right through

All that Archie can see is Jughead. He’s climbed--no, fallen--down the ladder to the safe house that Ronnie told him about, and all that he can see is Jughead coming towards him.

He curls around himself in pain, and Jughead crouches down in front of him.

  
“Archie,” Jughead breathes.

  
Archie leans into him—his vision is starting to go white from the pain. It feels like he’s being shivved again. No, it feels more like he’s being shivved ten times. One hundred. He can’t even sit up straight, he’s in so much pain. He wonders how he made it through an entire fight. He can hear Jughead’s heart, and he focuses on the beat. Anything to get him through this.

  
It seems to happen fast. The others pull him in. There’s so many of them there. Archie doesn’t know where he is or what’s going on. He can barely even make out who all is there. But they get him comfortable. There’s a bed in here, wherever he is. Toni gets to work patching him up. Before he knows it, he’s in the bed, his wounds all patched up, and for the first time in a long time, he can catch his breath.

  
“He needs to rest,” Archie hears someone say.

  
“But who’s going to watch him? Everyone’s out looking for him,” someone else says.

  
“I’ve got it,” Jughead says. Archie turns and looks at him. “Everyone go. I’ll take the first shift.”

  
“Are you sure, Jughead?” Betty says. “I can stay with him.”

  
“I’m sure,” Jughead says.

  
Everyone clears out, and suddenly, it’s just Archie and Jughead.

  
“How was juvie?” Jughead says.

  
Archie smiles slightly, trying to think of a way to make light of the situation. But quickly, he realizes, there is no way to make light of the situation. No even tiny joke that he can crack to try and keep spirits up. It’s all just shitty. And there’s nothing that Archie can do about it. The realization overwhelms him, and he starts to break down.

  
“Jug, it was awful,” he says between sobs.

  
Jughead comes over and sits on the bed next to him. He puts a hand on Archie’s shoulder, and the Red Paladin falls apart.

  
“Do you want to talk about it?” Jughead asks.

  
“Why is it always me Jug?” Archie says.

  
“What do you mean?”

  
“It’s like every time I’m happy, everything gets screwed up. I was happy with Ms. Grundy. And then she had to go to Greendale. And she was killed with the bow I gave her. And then my dad got shot. And then I was framed for murder, and even in juvie, I became the punching bag. I tried to start a game of football. The warden ordered the guards to stop the riot. Then I was selected for the fight club. I had to put on a show for the warden, or else I would be killed. And then—”

  
Archie dissolves into sobs again, not able to go on. He feels something on his head, and soon, he realizes that it’s Jughead stroking his hair. He keeps sobbing, and Jughead keeps gently stroking his hair, starts making _shhhh_ noises in his ear.

  
Finally, he catches his breath, and as soon as his breathing becomes normal again, Jughead stops stroking his head.

  
“I kind of liked that actually,” Archie says. Jughead smiles slightly, and he starts it again.

  
“You don’t have to tell me the rest if you don’t want to,” Jughead says.

  
“I want to,” Archie says. But his eyes are starting to grow heavy, and the bed is so warm, and he realizes that all in one day, he has gotten shivved, he has been in a fight, and he’s escaped from juvie. He should rest. “But maybe not right now.”

  
“You need your rest, young paladin,” Jughead says.

  
“Everyone keeps calling me a paladin. What does that even mean?” Archie says.

  
“There’s a lot we need to fill you in on. But that can wait. I think you should go to sleep,” Jughead says.

  
“I guess you’re right,” Archie says. He lets his exhaustion take over, and then he lets his eyes droop shut.

  
“Sleep well, Archie,” Jughead says. He swears he feels someone kiss his forehead, but then again he could have just as easily imagined it.

* * *

  
When Archie wakes, Jughead is gone. Instead, Betty is in Jughead’s place.

  
“Where’s Jug?” Archie asks.

  
“Oh, I sent him home. He needed some rest,” Betty says. Archie looks away, trying to hide his disappointment.

  
“How are you feeling?” Betty asks.

  
“Tired. Sore,” Archie says. For the first time, he looks around the room. “What is this place?”

  
“Dilton Doiley’s bunker,” Betty says.

  
“He has a bunker?” Archie asks.

  
“Had,” Betty says.

  
Archie must look confused, because Betty quickly starts talking again.

  
“Don’t worry about it,” she says. “We’ll fill you in in due time. We just...we want you to get settled first.”

  
“Okay,” he says.

  
She looks down at her phone and types something. A few seconds later, she looks back up.

  
“I let Jughead know that you’re awake. I think he’s on his way back over. Are you hungry? Would you like something from Pop’s?” Betty says.

  
“Yeah, I want my usual,” Archie says, barely able to suppress a grin.

* * *

  
After lunch, Betty gathers up the wrappers and shoves them into the empty Pop’s bags. Archie can’t remember the last time he had a meal that tasted that good, except for when he got the guards to bring him Pop’s. Even then, he shared it.

  
“Are you good here, Juggy?” Betty asks.

  
“I think so,” Jughead says. He looks at Archie and smiles. Archie swears he feels his heart skip a beat— but maybe he’s just imagining it.

  
Betty finally leaves, and once again, it’s just Jughead and Archie. Perhaps the way it was always supposed to be.

  
“I heard this is Dilton Doiley’s bunker. Or was,” Archie says.

  
“Yeah,” Jughead says. He almost seems a little sad, but Archie’s not sure why.

  
“What happened?” Archie asks.

  
“What do you mean?”

  
“I said it was Dilton’s bunker, and then you looked sad.”

  
“There’s...there’s not really time for that right now,” Jughead says. “You need to get stronger. You’re safe here for now, but—”

  
“Please?” Archie says. “I’ll finish telling you about juvie if you tell me what happened to Dilton.”

  
“Archie…”

  
“Please, Jug?”

  
“Arch.”

  
Archie’s eyes meet Jughead’s, which are cold and blue. And then, and then it hits Archie. Something bad has happened. Somehow, Riverdale is not done breaking his heart. Archie looks at Jughead, suddenly breathless, suddenly understanding the weight of what might have happened to Dilton. The words, they come out before Archie can stop them.

  
“I can go first,” Archie says.

  
Jughead sits back a little bit, a slight look of relief crossing his face.

  
“Okay,” Jughead says.

  
“I tried to escape. I tried to come back for you. But the guards...they shot us with rubber bullets. I got in a lot of trouble. The warden, he gave me a fancy dinner. Told me it would be my last fight. I was with Joaquin.”

  
“Joaquin?” Jughead asks. “What was he doing in juvie?”

  
“I’m not sure,” Archie says. “But I asked him...I asked him if he was with me. He kissed me.”

  
Jughead’s eyes bulge out of his head.

  
“I asked what he was doing, and then...then he shivved me.”

  
“Oh no,” Jughead says.

  
“I went to the fight...and then I escaped…”

  
“Archie…”

  
Archie can’t even think of what to say. But he desperately wants to fill the silence.

  
“Does my dad know where I am?” Archie asks.

  
“No,” Jughead says. “Veronica told us we had to keep quiet. Just so we could keep you safe.”

  
“Can I see him?”

  
“‘Fraid not, Arch. We just...we need to keep you safe.”

  
“Can you at least tell him that I’m safe?” Archie asks.

  
“Yeah, of course,” Jughead says. Archie smiles. “So. You and Joaquin?”

  
Archie looks down at the ground.

  
“He ran away. But it wasn’t...it was just one kiss. I didn’t even really get into it.”

  
Jughead is silent for a few moments, looking at the ground.

  
“So, what was it like?”

  
“What do you mean?”

  
“The kiss, Archie.”

  
“It was something like this.”

  
Archie’s not sure why he does it. Maybe it’s because he’s trapped in an underground bunker, with no hope of where to go. Maybe it’s because of that joke that Veronica and Betty made, saying that Archie and Jughead were the only two who hadn’t kissed. Maybe it’s because he really does love Jughead. But he reaches forward, closing the gap between them, and presses a kiss to Jughead’s lips. Jughead seems stiff and surprised at first, but then, he relaxes into it, and it’s just the two of them.

  
Finally, they break apart, and Archie looks at Jughead. He feels his lips curl up into a smile. Jughead takes his hand, runs it through Archie’s hair.

  
“My red paladin,” Jughead says, a modest smirk spreading across his face.

  
“I still don’t know what that means,” Archie says, smiling a little wider.

  
“Don’t worry about it,” Jughead says. “Just know that it fits you so damn well.”

  
And then Jughead kisses him again. And Archie kisses back.There’s no saying what even tomorrow will hold. All Archie knows is that he’s got Jughead with him, every step of the way.

**Author's Note:**

> i'm jarchie trash now so enjoy this fic
> 
> i'd love to write more jarchie so you should hmu with prompt ideas. i probably won't get to them until at least mid december bc school but still send them my way
> 
> fic title comes from "swimming pool" by the front bottoms
> 
> i should probably go to sleep now


End file.
